Economy

Tourism, Rx for the rich

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-04 09:52

Market potential

Zaets Andrey, 27, undergoes acupuncture at No 2 Affiliated Hospital. He has suffered from spastic quadriplegia for three years, but his mother, Hernova Ludmula, said his condition was improving after 20 days' treatment. Andrey is from Sochi, Russia, on the Black Sea. [Photo / Xinhua]

Despite the increasing number of Chinese choosing medical tourism, the business is still a fledgling with considerable untapped market potential, Hu said.

Renee Marie Stephano, president of the US-based Medical Tourism Association, expressed confidence in the Chinese market. The country's surging economy has produced a sharp increase in the number of ultra-wealthy residents and they are all potential customers, she said.

According to the annual Asia-Pacific Wealth Report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini, China now has 6,000 super-rich citizens - those with at least $30 million in investable assets. Japan has 5,300.

A recent survey by Rupert Hoogewerf, who ranks China's rich each year, showed that of all their expenditures, traveling took up the lion's share. Previously, the rich spent more on buying luxuries.

Given that China's medical services are among the most affordable in the world, Stephano said, only the rich go out of the country for quality services at high price.

Internationally, about 6 million people - largely from the United States, Japan, Europe and the Middle East - went abroad last year seeking medical services, mostly for a lower price or shorter waiting period, experts estimated. About 1.2 million of them chose Thailand and 450,000 India.

The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth the cost in the US or Western Europe, sometimes less, according to an article in UDaily, a University of Delaware publication.

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A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the US, for example, goes for $10,000 in India - and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package, the article said. A metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the US costs $500 in India, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the US is available in many other countries for $730.

Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full face-lift that would cost $20,000 in the US runs about $1,250 in South Africa, it said.

A forecast by Deloitte Consulting, published in August 2008, projected that medical tourism originating from the US could jump tenfold over the next decade. An estimated 750,000 Americans went abroad for health care in 2007, and the number reached roughly 1.5 million in 2010.

Convenience and speed also attract medical tourists, Stephano said. The increasing ease and affordability of international travel, along with improvements in technology and standards of care in many countries, also help the business.

Countries that operate public healthcare systems are often so taxed that patients must wait a considerable time for non-urgent medical care. In Canada, for example, 782,936 Canadians spent time on medical waiting lists - waiting an average of 9.4 weeks - in 2005, the most recent data available.